Chebakia

What it is

Chebakia is a honey pastry: a dough as firm as bread dough is deep-fried and then dipped in honey or syrup.¹ Finally sesame is sprinkled over it.² It is available in all Moroccan pastry shops.³ The study for WIPO and OMPIC calls it a pastry with honey and sesame.⁴

The name changes with the area, and Oubahli distinguishes two pastries here: the shabbakiya proper is, according to de Prémare’s dictionary, a rosette of thin yeast batter that runs in a thread into the hot oil and forms a lattice there, then dipped in honey; the mkharqa, by contrast, is cut from firm dough, deep-fried, dipped in honey and sprinkled with sesame.⁵ This second pastry is called mkharqa in Rabat and the centre of the country, griwsh in Fez and Oujda, but shabbakiya in Marrakesh and other cities; this name is today the most common in Morocco and among Moroccans in Europe, while the rosettes have become rarer.⁶

Where it comes from

Oubahli considers the cut honey pieces typical of the western Maghreb; Tunisians and the Arabs of the East do not know them, only a small Tunisian honey pastry is called mkharq, and under this name (makhariq) a recipe already appears in the 13th century in Ibn Razin in al-Andalus.⁷ The rosette of batter thread is called zlabia elsewhere in the Maghreb and in the Middle East; in Morocco this word is used only in Oujda alongside shabbakiya.⁸

In their survey of the sweets of Tetouan, Hassan Akdi and Noureddine Achboun list chebakia as a pastry of Ottoman origin made from fine flour and honey.⁹ Baklava appears in the same list, likewise as Ottoman.¹⁰

What it is made of

The dough contains flour, ground sesame, anise, cinnamon, mastic, eggs, butter, oil, vinegar and orange blossom water.¹¹ More expensive kinds also contain almonds.¹²

How it is made

The dough is cut into small pieces and deep-fried, then coated with honey or syrup and sprinkled with sesame.¹³ Many women make it in large quantities weeks before Ramadan so as to hand it out during the month of fasting.¹⁴ According to Oubahli, it was mostly the fritter makers (saffadj), not the housewives, who produced these pastries.¹⁵

How it is cooked

When

During Ramadan chebakia comes to the table every day, especially to break the fast, often with dates and harira or with mint tea.¹⁶ Among the places named for this are Fez, Meknes, Tangier, Marrakesh, Casablanca, Rabat, Beni Mellal and Khenifra.¹⁷ Oubahli confirms that chebakia is eaten in large quantities during Ramadan, to break the fast together with harira; according to Louis Brunot (1931), in Rabat it was part of the gift that the bride’s family sent to the groom’s family on the seventh day of the wedding.¹⁸